About the Book:
Once again, a crime wave swept through Pennsylvania state government. During a 17-month period from early 2015 through mid-2016, a sitting state treasurer, and a former state treasurer, both statewide elected officials who were guardians of taxpayers’ money, were charged with crimes, as was an ex-Governor’s chief of staff and the attorney general, the state’s chief law enforcement officer. It was preceded by a sting investigation that resulted in state legislators videotaped taking cash from an undercover operative posing as a lobbyist and an alleged pay to play scheme at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. Porn and off-color emails on government computers took out two Supreme Court justices. It’s all in Brad Bumsted’s latest book: Keystone Corruption Continues: Cash Payoffs, Porngate and the Kathleen Kane Scandal.

About the Author:
Brad Bumsted is a prominent journalist in Pennsylvania, working for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He is noted for writing “reform minded stories” about the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

In 2005, he was named one of “Pennsylvania’s Most Influential Reporters” by the Pennsylvania political news website PoliticsPA. In 2008, the political website PolitickerPA.com named him one of the “Most Powerful Political Reporters” in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Report named him to the 2009 “The Pennsylvania Report 100” list of influential figures in Pennsylvania politics and described him as a “mainstay in the halls of the capitol.”

About the Book:
A FAMILY THAT CONFRONTS THE FORCES OF MENTAL ILLNESS, AND LEARNS THAT NO BURDEN IS SO HEAVY AS TO DEFEAT AN ETERNAL LOVE.

Quite apart from other memoirs, the author captivates the reader’s attention, by painting a portrait of mental illness through the eyes of a child. As a child growing up during the 40s and 50s, in the rural Spanish farming communities of New Mexico/Colorado, she recounts her father’s courage and refusal to accept the finality of his wife’s mental illness, and how he single-handedly raised four daughters, teaching them what it means to survive, drawing strength from the pride of self-worth, and the humility of self-reliance.

Excerpt:I have come full circle to the land of my father’s birth, Rociada, New Mexico, where I breathe in the aspirations of my ancestors, where I hear the swish of their scythe against the wheat, their plough turning a stubborn, bounteous earth, where I see the rutted and hooved reliefs of wagons and beasts, burdens, which led directly to a remarkable life, one guided by a dream of an angel sitting on my shoulder, watching over me.

The screams frightened me beyond verbal description, but this fright was quickly supplanted by the even greater one of not knowing where I was going and what waited for me at the top. We climbed the metal grated stairs, each step causing vibrations that made me feel they would collapse at any moment. The higher we climbed, the louder the screams became. I was afraid to go on, but afraid of what was behind me. As we ascended, my heart beat faster with each step. I felt sick to my stomach wondering what evil waited for me, but I never complained, and did what was expected of me. By the age of three I had learned to control my emotions, and as I grew older, I found that self-control in the face of the unknown would help me survive.

As we neared the top, I could hear doors creak open in front of us and slam shut behind us. When we reached the final step, we came to a lobby with a long hallway. The door closings reverberated off the high ceiling and masonry walls; harsh lights overhead reflected off shiny, off-white, dirty-beige, and pea-green walls. The floors were covered with hard linoleum squares, worn, scuffed, and cracked, and though polished to a high sheen, every square was embedded with the dirt of half a century.

About the Author:
MELA SUŚE VIGIL DURAN CARVALKO has spent many years investigating the genealogy of Spanish families that settled in San Miguel/Mora counties, New Mexico. In addition to documenting her accounts of the life and times during the mid-twentieth century, she devotes time as an artist and musician. She studied art at Sacred Heart University and mentored under impressionist artist Albert Werner. Currently she lives between New Mexico and the east coast with her husband, three cats and dog Leila.

What Others Are Saying:
When a Greenland shaman decides to fight back against global warming and the harm it is doing to his people, a powerful series of events unfolds in this cli-fi thriller. Keith Rommel knows how to spin a great yarn!
– Dan Bloom, The Cli-Fi Report

About the Book:HUNGER WILL BRING ANYTHING TO THE SURFACE …
The Eskimo people of Greenland have grown tired of the damage being done to their country. Global warming from emissions that stem from the shipping lanes that run between Canada and Greenland has made people that live close to the coast sick. Cancer, asthma and as many as 5,000 deaths a year have been attributed to this pollution. A single cargo ship in one year burns more emissions than 50 million gasoline burning vehicles.

When Akutak, a Greenlandic Shaman Eskimo, decides to take action against the things that are destroying his country, he uses the ancient arts and creates a tupilak and with it and conjures a curse. Designed in the form of an octopus, this Goliath is going to become Greenland’s guardian and do everything within its power to stop the erosion of the ice sheet.

But not everyone sees the Tupilak Octopus as a champion and they seek to destroy it. But the only way to destroy it is to conjure something more powerful and Akutak may be Greenland’s most powerful shaman.

This novelette is part of the Cli-Fi movement and contains stunning facts surrounding Greenland and the danger this beautiful country faces from big oil to overused shipping lanes. Akutak and his Tupilak Octopus has one message: leave Greenland alone! – Read this highly educational novel with a great fiction story intertwined within the startling facts.

Excerpt:
Akutak knelt down on the hard, cold surface of a mountainous ice sheet that overlooked the valley’s deep ice canyon. A large rivulet carried fast-moving glacial water, and the sound of the running river was loud enough to reach Akutak even at this altitude.

Located in the interior of Greenland, beneath the ice sheet and river flow, was a canyon that snaked around and reached the Petermann Glacier on the northern coast. The water melt also flowed beneath the ice and was released into the Arctic Ocean.

True to old tradition almost lost throughout the centuries, Akutak wore the skins of animals that were captured for their meat. The skins were sewn together by his wife. She was a skilled seamstress and made him kamiks, trousers and anoraks, gloves and a hat. It was her skill that protected him against the harsh elements and kept him alive. Knowing she made the clothing, the frigid cold was of no concern; in Greenland it is said a man is what his wife makes him.

Opening the flap of an animal skin sack that was slung over his shoulder, he peered inside and saw what he had placed there before he left home at first light.

The wind whipped and reminded Akutak that where he was was inhospitable and unwelcoming. But still, he continued to move forward with the plan that took him nearly two years to complete; shrouded in silence even to his kin. What he created and what he was about to do was never shared with anyone else. It couldn’t be because that was the way.

He carefully reached into his sack and pulled out a hand-sized tupilaq. This carefully handmade avenging monster was created to keep people away from his native land, which was shrinking each year because of global warming.

The shaman began to chant in his native tongue of Inuit. He called forth in a repeated rhythmic sound, reciting his desire to make those who caused it to pay for what his country was suffering. He wanted to instill fear and summoned a beast, large and unstoppable, filled with the rage of his ancestors. This beast would do terrible things to keep people away from Greenland.

He looked at the tupilaq, made the traditional way to ensure its effectiveness; the design represented exactly what he foresaw as being the bringer of fear and order, death, and a reluctance to challenge the waters around Greenland. Made from carved bone, dried and stretched skin, woven hair and sinew, the totem even contained parts from dead children.

Drawing himself close to the ridge, each footfall carefully placed so as not to plunge to his death, his chant continued as he looked over the edge and into the clear water. He held onto the tupilaq, looked at his work one last time to make sure it was good enough, and then held it out and released it over the flowing water.

About the Author:
Keith Rommel is the author of numerous fiction thrillers, best known for his Thanatology Series, which includes The Cursed Man, and The Lurking Man, both of which are becoming Hollywood movies. Keith is also a screenwriter.

Author Sherri Maret (right) on her visit to the Shippensburg Area Intermediate Unit. Illustrator Noelle Ziegler (Help Me!) is on the left. Librarian Beth Jones is in the cage.

NEWVILLE – Sherri Maret is a newly published author living her dream.

“I taught for 20 years as an English teacher and library media specialist in Chambersburg, Cumberland Valley, and Shippensburg school districts,” Maret said in a press release. “I loved teaching, but I wanted to write children’s books, too.”

In April 2016, Maret released her first book, “Help Me!”, about a lady who loves animals who flies to Africa for an amazing animal adventure. When it is time to go home, she decides she wants to take a baby animal home with her. The lady ends up having a very different kind of adventure that wasn’t at all what she had planned.

Maret’s new book, “The Gingerbread Man’s School Adventure,” will be released Aug. 1. She said she wrote it primarily for the kindergarten teachers she worked with at James Burd Elementary School in Shippensburg. In it, a gingerbread man who fears he will be eaten by two children or their mother finds himself at an elementary school seeking help from many of the people who work there.

“Originally, it was to introduce kindergartners to elementary school, but then I decided to adjust it so it serves as a back-to-school book, too,” Maret said.

Maret’s latest book is illustrated by Emily McMichael, a 2015 graduate of Shippensburg Area Senior High School.

As an educator she knows teachers and librarians are busy, so she created multiple follow-up activities that are available on her website, www.sherrimaret.com. “I spent so much time creating lessons and activities for my students when I taught. I know how hard teachers/ librarians work, so I wanted to help them.” Parents who homeschool their children might also find the activities helpful, she said.

“I wish I could draw but I don’t have the talent,” Maret said. “I was lucky to find two very talented students when I taught at the Shippensburg Area Senior High School.”

“Noelle and I did eight school presentations on our publishing journey in Shippensburg. We had a great time. I hope we get to do more,” Maret said.

The author also worked for the Chambersburg Area School District at Faust and Chambersburg Area Senior High schools from 1997 to 2003. “Sometimes I run into former CASD students, which is fun,” she said. “It doesn’t happen very often since I now live in Newville.”

Maret will have a reading at Grove Family Library, 101 Ragged Edge Road, Chambersburg, from 6-7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5, and a book signing from 9:30-10:15 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6.

Her books may be purchased from the author, online through Sunbury Press or through major online/ traditional bookstores.

(from The Public Opinion July 21, 2016: http://www.publicopiniononline.com/story/life/2016/07/21/former-english-teacher-librarian-releases-second-book-kids/87420566/)

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Sunbury Press has released Cast Iron Signs of Pennsylvania Towns and Other Landmarks, N. Clair Clawser’s compilation of early roadside markers in the Keystone state.

About the Book:Author and field researcher N. Clair Clawser has spent over 50 years traveling the highways and thoroughfares of Pennsylvania to capture images of the cast iron road signs placed there in the early days of automobiles. Many of these signs are long gone, but quite a few remain and have been restored.

Pennsylvania is unique with this type of town sign, which could become a thing of the past. (New York State has many cast iron signs, too, but they are on many subjects and not necessarily on town names.) Almost from the start Clair noticed some of these signs were being removed, even as he discovered that many still remained. Originally cast from about 1929 until 1942, these signs were made largely in either the Carlisle Foundry in Carlisle or Geiser Manufacturing Company in Waynesboro. Both companies are long out of business. There are a small number that were produced elsewhere, but not many. (Allegheny Foundry.) Jack Graham of the Keystone Markers Trust stated that the Department of Highways report for 1928-1930 said, “During the biennium 1,359 information signs were placed including historical, stream, state institution, speed limit and parking restriction signs.”

Many of these signs endure to this day, but are in constant danger of removal. A few new ones have been posted, but many more should be. The aforementioned report does not say how many were town signs. If the total was all towns and divided by 4 that would only be 339 towns. There are numerous stream signs still in existence today. These are 2-sided with just the name. Town signs are one-sided. We can only imagine that each town that had a cast iron sign may have had 4, one for each direction. Very few towns, that still have a sign, have more than two today. Hanover, a rarity, has six. Gettysburg has 4, as does Jonestown. York New Salem has 3, as does Lemoyne. Rothsville had 4, but one was removed. Schoeneck has 4 new ones installed by the Keystone Markers Trust, and Mountville has 3.

Signs from 67 Pennsylvania counties are listed, including the known contents each sign. Pictures are shown where available.

MANTUA, Italy – July 18, 2016 – PRLog — Sunbury Press has released Franni and the Duke, Anne E. Johnson’s middle-grade novel about two sisters trying out for Monteverdi’s opera in 1608, only to stumble upon a handsome and mysterious singer.

About the Book:
In May of 1608, the Duke of Mantua will throw the most spectacular wedding extravaganza in history. But it will all be ruined unless twelve-year-old Franni can keep a very big secret.

Franni and the Duke, a middle-grade novel, sets a fictional mystery against a specific historical backdrop. It takes place during rehearsals for Arianna, an opera by the great composer Claudio Monteverdi. When Franni and her older sister Alli run away to Mantua, they both find work in Monteverdi’s company. A messenger from the north announces that the next duke of the town of Bergamo is missing, and he may well be in Mantua. Alli notices that Luca, a singer she’s in love with, fits the missing Duke’s description. Although Franni thinks Luca is a pompous idiot, she promises for Alli’s sake to keep Luca’s secret safe and protect him from bounty hunters and Bergamo’s rival family. She does this with the help of the company’s set designer, a worldly wise and world-weary dwarf named Edgardo, who is not exactly what he seems.

Claudio Monteverdi

Excerpt:Thursday, May 8, 1608
“I’m hungry,” said Franni. She ached all over from hours of walking down rocky roads in the Northern Italian countryside. “Please, can we get some food, Alli?” She shivered in the chilly spring drizzle.

Franni’s older sister, Alessandra, walked in front as usual. She looked back and smiled weakly. “I know you’re hungry, Franni. I am, too.” Alli’s eyes were glassy in her drawn face. “We’re almost to Mantua. That’s a big city with lots of rich people. I’m sure someone will take pity on us there.”

Although Franni doubted it, she nodded. A day and a half ago, they’d run away from their stepfather in Verona. They’d left in the middle of the night, carrying only a satchel of clothes each, and one loaf of bread between them. The last town they’d been through hadn’t shown them much pity. When they’d taken a drink at the central fountain, a soldier had chased them right out of town.

“I’m so tired.” She hardly had the strength to get any sound out. There was no way Franni could take another step, so she sat down right there in the road.

Alli grabbed Franni’s elbow and yanked. “Come on. We’ve got to get to Mantua before the sun goes down.” A slender, delicate creature of seventeen, Alli was no match for Franni when the younger girl felt stubborn. Franni willed herself to weigh as much as the elephant her real father once saw in Algiers. He’d said it was the size of twenty men. Closing her eyes, Franni glued herself to the paving stones, thinking heavy thoughts.

“A cart!” Alli let go of Franni’s arm and stood up, waving.

Franni’s heavy mood turned to dandelion seeds and floated away. “A cart?” She craned to see the black horse drawing a workman’s cart slowly along the road toward them. “Do you think he’ll give us a ride?”

“He has to,” said Alli. It sounded like a prayer. “He just has to.”

We’re saved! thought Franni. But when the cart pulled near enough that they could smell the tang of horse sweat, she changed her mind. “He’s an undertaker,” she whispered. “Look at the white marble slabs he’s dragging in that cart. It would be bad luck to ride with him.” She backed off the road and pulled her embroidered scarf over her head and face.

To Franni’s distress, Alli stepped into the middle of the road and waved her arms wider. If only their mother could see them now, two noble girls, behaving like beggars. Surely Mama could see them as she looked down from Heaven. She probably also saw how their stepfather treated the girls after their mother died. Franni was sure Mama up in Heaven approved of how she and Alli had sneaked out of the gates of Verona one night to find a happier life.

“Whoa!” said the cart driver, pulling back on the horse’s reins. “What is it, child? Why are you in the road? Do you need help?”

About the Author:
Anne E. Johnson taught music history for many years in New York City, specializing in the Baroque and Renaissance periods, and she feels a particular connection to the music and times of Claudio Monteverdi. Besides fiction, she has also written performing arts journalism for publications includingThe New York Times and Stagebill Magazine. Dozens of her short stories, for both kids and adults, have appeared in print and online.

Anne lives in Brooklyn with her husband, playwright Ken Munch. When she’s not writing or editing, she’s probably baking or going to concerts and plays. Her website is http://AnneEJohnson.com.

NEW YORK — Sunbury Press has released The Making of a Don, Charles Ursitti’s fictionalized account of the rise of a Mafia boss in New York’s Little Italy decades ago.

Paul Sorvino

What Others Are Saying:
This book is most rare in its chronicling of a mafia family. Ursitti tells the story without sentimentality or literary agenda. As easily as ordering a plate of pasta with sausages. His style seeks no approval for itself but in short order the minimalism, nay innocence, compels and invades so that you feel you are in the very rooms where the hits are agreed to and business is set aright and lurking death is assuaged once more. Atavistic, primitive and oh so hard to put down! — PAUL SORVINO (actor: Good Fellas, Nixon, Law & Order, Murder She Wrote, Moonlighting …)

About the Book:
Frankie Boy reminisces about his childhood living in a big, Italian, Mafia family in New York City and how excited everyone would get each time Uncle Frank, also his mentor and idol, came by his grandma’s house for a delicious, Italian meal. Uncle Frank is Frankie Boy’s entire world growing up, and he continues to be so throughout his life. However, Frankie Boy wants to pave his own path in life, a life of legitimacy, and a life where his hard-earned degree is being put to good use. With the help and support of Uncle Frank, he is able to do so. However, life doesn’t always unravel exactly as we’d like it to, especially when your uncle is Capo dei Capi, Boss of Bosses, and Frankie Boy finds himself once again searching for his place and purpose in life. Uncle Frank once again offers him the opportunity to learn the family business, and after much deliberating, Frankie Boy begins learning the ins and outs of mob life with his best friend Nicky at his side, a loyal and loving friend that goes to extreme lengths to ensure the success of Frankie.

The Making of a Don is a raw and very real portrayal of the inner workings and hierarchy of the Italian Mafia. Frankie Boy works his way up from the very bottom with the experienced guidance of his uncle, and he learns that even those that are closest, those that are “family,” can still betray you in the worst ways possible. Frankie must decide who he can really trust, who has his back, and what lengths to take to protect his business, his family, and his friendships. Nothing is at it seems when you’re in the mob, and Frankie must find ways to ensure all five families are happy and under his thumb.

About the Author:
Charles J. Ursitti grew up in New York City and has spent most of his life there.

After working in the corporate world for ten years, Charles turned his talents into producing and promoting billiards. His events were aired on ABC’s Wide World of Sports with Howard Cosell for five years, CBS Sports Spectacular with John Madden for seven years, NBC’s Sport World, ESPN, USA Cable and numerous other local cable stations. He managed and promoted the legends of the game including Willie Mosconi, Minnesota Fats, and Steve Mizerak, just to name a few. He also created

the most accurate and complete history of both pocket billiards and three cushion billiards from their inception in 1878 to present times. He is known as one of the most knowledgeable billiard historians in the world. His efforts were rewarded when on October 29, 2015 Charlie became the 66th inductee in the prestigious Billiard Congress of America’s Hall of Fame.

Charlie was also a firearms designer and a professional skeet, trap and handgun shooter. After a severe car accident in April of 2000, he retired from shooting and turned his skills to writing. He wrote for several billiard magazines and then turned to writing novels.